Though some online rumors suggested that the “Mama Said Knock You Out” rapper began altering the length of his left pant leg as a means to bring attention to his shoes -- at the time, he was a spokesperson for clothier FUBU -- he offered a more humble explanation during a 2010 interview with the Guardian.

“You know what? I have huge left calf muscles,” he said. “They need room to breathe. I haven’t done that for years though. It’s just a style from New York.”

During a recent interview on "Piers Morgan Tonight," LL revealed that the late Whitney Houston used to tease him about the way he wore his pants. “I remember one time she saw me backstage at an event. She said, ‘Oh, LL, you got that from my husband,’” he recalled Houston saying, comparing him to R&B singer Bobby Brown, her husband at the time. “I said, ‘No, Whitney, your husband got that from me.' And that was a fun moment.”

The masterminds behind the fad were New York bike messengers from the late 1970s and early 1980s. “One of the messengers' signatures was to roll up a pant leg to avoid getting their trousers caught in their bicycle chains,” Lynette Holloway wrote.

I guess necessity is the mother of invention, even when it comes to hip-hop fashion.